demi week one

Uh, I'm not exactly going to post a week by week update on Demi, but it has been a week and here's where I'm at:

I'm knitting in the round, which I think is much easier to avoid the Ptbl and I'm psyched to minimize the seaming. I don't think the pictures show it, but some of my knitting looks kind of sloppy, which I'm hoping will block out somewhat. All the cables and twists make it hard for me to be consistent sometimes, so I'm trying to go slow and focus on making it look nice - you focus so hard on just getting the pattern at first that it's hard to pay attention to anything else! I've been pulling the bobbles through on the right rather than the left because I think it makes them sit flatter.

I found an awesome tutorial for cable knitting without a cable needle, because, well, I forgot my cable needle, and I think this has made it a lot faster, and probably helps me avoid stretching the stitches out too much when I'm cabling. I think I'll stop using a cable needle forever. Big words in this knitting dork's world.

I really need to send the previously mentioned gifts out too...

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secrets & surprises

I can't quite post anything yet, because everything I've been working on is a gift that I should probably give before I post. One is done and will be given soon, one is 97% done and then I broke my last 3 machine needles trying to finish it last night. Since I'm going to be away from the machine for a week, that's going to be on hold. And the third is going to be started when I get back.

I have started Demi, finally, despite having some carpal tunnel-like symptoms that I'm tring to ignore. And I'm also thinking about this with a great big duvet cover from The Garment District that I'm ready to cut up.

Add it to the list.

inspiration in the family

So lately I've been looking around me for inspiration and ideas, and I'm obsessed with all things vintage, old - anything with a kind of weathered character. I started digging around in old pictures because the clothes in the pictures always make me excited and I lament that my mom didn't carefully preserve all her clothes for her unborn daughter. I love these hotpants and this flower dress!

In the course of digging, I came across these pictures of my mom "modeling" for a photographer friend. I love the clothes, especially the high-waisted pants, and seeing my mom in her youth during this era really moves me. She looks so classy and beautiful.

Now, the digging began because I remembered getting excited seeing the clothes I'm wearing in my childhood pictures, and wanted to find those for inspiration. When I was a kid my mom made most of my clothes - I'm not sure if she made these, but I wish I had these floral blouses now! And maybe even the bowl cut... (My grandmother's top isn't bad either!)

sunshine and bugs

Sunshine is finally done! And I've got some bugs to go with it.

I made some modifications to narrow the sleeves, lengthen the entire sweater, and change the neck to a small ruffle instead of the ribbed collar (see description on Ravelry). I'm pretty happy with it - I pray to the swatch gods now because knitting the swatch is why this fits and not knitting the swatch is why the minimalist cardigan did not.

I've also been dying to try embroidery, so I stitched up a few bugs on these cloth napkins I bought (4 for $2) at The Garment District. I got the idea from a beetle I saw in a Japanese embroidery pattern book online, and then sketched a couple other ugly bugs. This was therapeutic for my bug phobia, because I got a little desensitized after looking at pictures of bugs online to get ideas for drawing. I have a particular problem with centipedes, so that was a helpful stitch.

The beetle is my favorite.

back in business

So I finally returned from what turned out to be two weeks in Boston and western Mass, and plugged in the camera. I knitted obsessively and will hopefully finish Sunshine soon, but was also lucky enough to have little E model the dresses I made her in the spring!

Really, the pictures of the baby are much more exciting than the dresses, but it was awesome to see them in action! I love the Tina Givens fabric in the first one, and I love the pattern too, but I struggled with the collar. The second dress turned out much longer than I expected; I would shorten it next time, but I loved the ruffled edge.

I was also lucky enough while visiting Andrea to acquire this scarf from her, which I ogled the whole time she was knitting it back when we worked together. It's a beautiful moss stitch with Frog Tree yarn, and the trade-off was that I have to weave in the ends (which I hid for the picture). This scarf took a lot of patience because moss stitch is a pain in the butt, so I REALLY appreciate this gift!

Hopefully I'll be posting more soon when I finish Sunshine...



and start playing with some of the other things I picked up...